Yours truly reviewed Big Big Train's newest album The Likes Of Us (see review) a couple of months ago and although BBT is not my favourite prog rock band I sincerely loved most songs on that album. Now, BBT release a marvellous live album which features the band's full show at Cadogan from the second of their two nights there last year and the album also includes seven songs which were played only on the first night. A Flare On The Lens contains seventeen songs plus a three song acoustic medley, which are not my favourite tracks on the album as you might have probably guessed.... The song material ranges from their The Underfall Yard album (2009) till their newest album The Likes Of Us. The latter is represented with two tracks, being: the more than excellent Oblivion and the rather sometimes tiresome Love Is The Light. Most songs on this extraordinary album are from the albums English Electric Part 1 and English Electric Part 2, while some great BBT albums are almost "forgotten"..... Highlights, at least for me, are East Coast Racer, Victorian Brickwork, Brooklands and the more than excellent instrumental Apollo from the Common Ground album. Alberto Bravin, the "new" singer, does a great job and especially Nick D'Virgilio and Rikard Sjoblom create second to none musical performances indeed. A Flare On The Lens is a great live album of a notorious prog rock band and it is available as Limited 3CD+ Blu-ray Digipak in slipcase & as Gatefold 180g 2LP edition (featuring a selection of ten tracks from the live set), as well as Digital album. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
